Kickstarter Focus: the 3D Printed iBoardbot Doodles Your Boredom Away

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I bored, you bored, we’re all bored for the iBoardbot. For those DIYers who are bored of their existing projects and are looking for something fun and unique, this 3D printed writing and drawing (and wiping) robot is now live on Kickstarter.

Plenty of 3D printing enthusiasts are familiar with the use of 3D printers for plotting and drawing purposes. The iBoardbot takes this ability and dedicates its whole life around drawing and writing text onto a glass surface. Think of it as a programmable whiteboard that does all of the work for you. With Wi-Fi capability, the iBoardbot can be controlled via the web through a simple web app. Users can either upload an image or draw their own through the app.

As a DIY kit, the iBoardbot, designed by JJRobots, comes with a handful of 3D printed parts and vitamins, including: “B-robot BRAIN SHIELD v.2.0 + Arduino Leonardo compatible board, 2x Stepper motor drivers, 2x High quality stepper motors, 2x servos cables, whiteboard pen, [and] CLOUD service subscription (1 year).” This makes it an interesting product for families, but the bot can be more than a toy for developers and Makers.

The vitamins within the iBoardbot are meant to be somewhat universal, allowing users to take apart old Maker toys to build this one or vice versa. And an open API supplied with the bot will allow developers to program it for whatever they can think up. Some suggestions on the KS campaign include: “Writing Tweets with a specific Hashtag, displaying motivational quotes, showing the weather forecast in your city, ifttt recipes, [and] the latest reviews about your shop or your company.”

Had I the walking around money to buy one, I probably would, just for the novelty of it. It’s a fun little, open source project and, best of all, the campaign never refers to the iBoardbot as a “3D printer” once. The kit starts at $110, which is not a bad price at all for a robot that can doodle your boredom away. If you’re looking for some other fun projects, however, its inventor, Juan Pedro Calderon, came up with an air hockey playing robot using 3D printed parts, too.

Michael Molitch-Hou previously served as Editor-in-Chief of 3D Printing Industry, he is now the Editor of Engineering . com's 3D printing section. He has covered additive manufacturing technology day in and day out since 2012 and has hundreds of article to his credit. He is the founder of The Reality Institute.